Wednesday crafting! (WOYWW)

Well yesterday morning my desk was taken over by Alex crafting using my things including the cuttlebug and my promarkers to make a cog pattern which he took to school.

This morning he decided that he wanted to follow the instructions in the book 'Super Diaper Baby' and draw the different characters...this particular one is Super Diaper Baby himself

 and this is Deputy Doo Doo, the baddy!

For my entry to WOYWW here is my desk as it looked late on Tuesday evening while I was partway through doing the next page of my weekly smash book. You can see the book with the printed images cut out and spread roughly on top, my trusty mug of tea, my scissors, post it note pad and pen, the steampunk stamps I was intending to use and finally my PVA glue.

Here is the completed page featuring photos taken of Alex during his half-term holiday.  The text is a mixture of stamps and my writing about the things that he did.  I used a mixture of Darkroom Door and Hero Arts steampunk stamps and as a result am entering this into SSSS 'use a stamp you love but never use'.  I love steampunk, and  I was given the Hero arts stamps for Mother's Day last year and this is the first time I have used them (the pointing hand, compass and some of the words). That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Half-term smiles!

It is time for another Friday's smiles courtesy of Annie. Well it has been half-term for Alex this week, and although sadly I have had to be in work for most of it he has had fun at his holiday club.  Today he came back home having made this 'suspension bridge' all by himself...he was so pleased with it and needless to say we were very impressed!

I did have one day off work this week so we could do things together, so yesterday morning we went bowling...Alex beat me 84 points to 74 (I am totally rubbish at bowling!).

Then in the afternoon we went to Magna, Sheffield's science museum.  Alex loved winding the handles, pulling the leavers,

shooting the water cannons,

pretending to be a miner,

and of course, the amazing fire tornado.  It was a great day off and such fun to spend it with him. Enjoy the smiles everyone and have a lovely weekend.
Take care,
Love,
Caro
x

Fame?! (WOYWW)

They say that everyone will have their 5 minutes of fame...well this week I had about 20 seconds worth as I was quoted in a Sunday Times Magazine article alongside a not very flattering photo taken in the lab at work! Fortunately only one person at work spotted it so I wasn't subjected to too much teasing.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, here is my desk as it was this morning, all neat and tidy with Alex sat watching annoying orange on the ipad. He thinks annoying orange is hilarious, although it isn't my sense of humour at all.

As my entry to WOYWW this is my desk as it was on Tuesday; covered in background papers made using my new Gelli Plate (Tim gave it to me as a Valentine's Day present!).  I have had loads of fun messing with the paint effects and had spread all my attempts out in order to choose which background I wanted to use. At the back of the desk you can see my limited collection of acrylic paints and my trusty mug of tea (almost empty and in need of a refill).  At the left of the desk is a fiskars shape cutting stencil, an embossed piece of card I used on the gelliplate and my smash book open at the page I was about to fill.

As many of you know I have been using my smash book as a diary of this year so the next page was about our pancake day fun.  I took a large photo of  a pancake for the centre of the page and used word art for the  title.  I then put little photos of the fun around the edge and annotated with my own handwriting. I am entering this into Kaboodle Doodles 'not a square' challenge.

The next page was of Valentine's Day when Tim took me out for a lovely Chinese meal (photos of the food at the top of the page) and gave me a beautiful bunch of flowers (photo at the bottom) as well as the gelli plate. For this I used a gelliplate background with two impressions and three colours of paint, and then I stamped over the top with script, music and hearts in fired brick distress ink before adding the photos (giving them captions where appropriate), part of the beer label, a peel off title and a Tim Holtz key as a finishing touch.  As a result I am entering this into SSSS 'metal-ology', Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'I'm seeing red' and Month in Review challenges.
That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Fun in the sun!

Woo Hoo!  We have had lots of sun this weekend and have enjoyed being out in the park.

Alex even had an ice cream!

Crafting wise it is time for another Quirky Crafts Challenge which was 'a supernatural love story'.  We have two sponsors this week; Doodle Dragon and Limited Runs so do pop by and join in with our challenge.  My first card was used one of the romantic dinosaurs from Doodle Dragon for a Valentine's Day card for Alex who loves dinosaurs. He didn't think it was fair that he made me a card and I hadn't made him one! For this I layered various patterned papers (scraps from my other projects), used a heart die cut, then stamped the freebie wings stamp from this months crafty stamper and cut them out to attach to the heart, then placed the dinosaur on top. The sentiment was specifically designed for Alex as one of our names for him is little monster. I printed it on my computer using a standard windows font. I finished the card off with gold peel offs. I am entering this card into My Time To Craft 'men only', crafty creations 'love and/or hearts', delicious doodles 'for the boys', and All sorts 'things with wings' (I hope a winged heart counts)

My second entry was a tag for Alex's present and used another Doodle Dragon romantic dinosaur and a heart key both coloured in with promarkers. I made the background to this tag using my new gelli plate with two diffferent layers of paint, and then stamped some extra hearts and the word 'love' on top. I finished it off with a Tim Holtz reinforcer, heart brad and painted diecut heart which I doodled on for added impact.   I am entering this into Tuesday Throwdown's 'anything goes' challenge, and Penny's challenge 'use your favourite colour combo' (red is my favourite colour and green is my husbands so I seem to use them together quite a lot!).  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Caro
x

Pancake smiles!

It is Friday and time to join in with Annie's Friday smiles. As you can probably guess from the title, my main smiles are from Tuesday evening when we had a great family pancake meal.  Here is Alex helping to mix the pancakes. He was highly excited by the whole process and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

His fillings of choice for the first pancake were golden syrup, sprinkles and mini marshmallows (Not my choice...I am a traditionalist who likes lemon and sugar on mine).

He ate it with gusto, but felt a little queezy afterwards, only wanting one more with a small amount of syrup on it!

Alex has had a busy time crafting this week and yesterday morning made this robot which he took to school to show his teacher (the snow was still in evidence but melting fast).

I have also had fun crafting with a day off work for Valentine's Day and here is the next page of my smash book featuring a trip to one of my closest friends' house a few weekends ago. As this layout has 4 layers on it (not including the background) I will enter it into stampavie's 'lots of layers'

For Valentines Day as well as taking me out for a yummy meal and giving me some beautiful flowers, Tim gave me a gelli plate which I am starting to experiment with.  Lots of mess and fun to be had with acrylic paint.  The background for this next page of my smash book used my first successful attempt with the gelliplate involving 3 different acrylic paints (navy blue, light blue and cream), sequin waste, bubble wrap, lettering and snowflake stamps.  I have a way to go before i master the technique but was quite pleased with this one whih I finished off with some silver stamping of more snowflakes and script.  As you can see this page features the snow photos from last Tuesday and I am entering it into SSSS 'something messy'. It was certainly messy and great fun to do. For me this background feels somewhat distressed in nature (peeling paint etc) so I am also entering it into stampin' for the weekend 'distressed' challenge.   That is all from me.  Keep smiling and have a nice weekend.
Love,
Caro
x

Still here! (WOYWW)

Well having had 4 inches of snow on Sunday-Monday it is hanging around this time!  This was the view from the sitting room in the dark taken with the starlight setting on my camera on Sunday night when it was still snowing - only about 1-2 inches at that point.  The photo is somewhat overexposed and yellow because of the street lights.  Despite the snow we have been able to get out and about to work, school etc.

Here is Alex in his traditional pose of crafting at my desk...this time he has nicked some of my washi tapes to make a border around one of his pictures...he really likes using 'Mummy's crafty stuff'

For WOYWW here is my desk as it was on Tuesday evening while making the tags for Tim's valentine's day presents. There are Tim Holtz love tickets, a crafty individuals script stamp, scallop edged scissors, promarker pens and ink pads of various sorts.  Needless to say my trusty mug of steaming hot tea is also there!

Here are the finished tags. The crafty individuals stamp was stamped with teabag onto a background, then the hearts hand drawn in poppy promarker and doodled round with a fine black pen, the love ticket added and one corner removed before placing onto a red background and punching a hole in the corner. I am entering these into craftycardmakers 'vintage love', Kaboodle Doodle 'Valentine',  Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'put your heart on it', and Tuesday throwdown 'anything goes'

The only other crafting thing I have done this week has been my Faith smash book. I finally had time to really think about what I wanted to express about Christmas and what it means to me in my faith.  The big block of text on the left contains my words and I have added pertinent images from the net, from my Church's carol service sheet, and various Christmas stamps. 
That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Very little!

There is very little to show or say from this weekend!  Yesterday was spent with Alex's street dance lesson, doing the weekly shop and then clothes shopping.  This morning we woke up to a frosting of snow, some mist and snow still falling.  Church was fairly empty as a result although the service was fantastic.  Then this afternoon the snow turned to rain and it mostly washed away, although it has now started again.

Crafting wise I have played with a new technique I have learnt in Adobe photoshop elements.  Not sure this was the strongest picture to try it on, but it worked a treat and I will have to play with it again some time.

I also made Tim's valentines day card.  I used the technique described in crafty stamper; making a big block of colour using the thick end of a promarker, then doodling round it with a thin black pen before adding a pattern to the background using bubble wrap and fired brick distress ink.  I finished it off with the kanban birds stamp (cut out and coloured using spice promarker) and the free sentiment. I am entering this into Cards for men 'All my heart',  Papertake Weekly 'anything goes', Simon says stamp 'have a heart', Stampavie 'love', CCT 'love struck' DCM 'love is in the air' and Speedy Fox 'love'.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone and stay warm.
Love,
Caro
x

Snowy smiles!

It is Friday and time for Annie's smiles.  I have to confess to cheating as my smile isn't actually from today but from earlier in the week (Tuesday to be exact) when we had loads of snow.  This is Alex hiding in his base during our snowball fight...the rule was that I wasn't allowed to get him when he was in this base.

While I enjoyed the sledging (yes I am a big kid!)

Alex thought it was the greatest of fun to roll down the hill

and then face plant into the snow to make an impression of his face including his glasses.  It worked well, but he was rather cold afterwards!  Most of the snow has gone now, but apparently we are due some more on Sunday-Monday...I wonder if there will be enough for this much fun again!
Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

More snow!

We woke up yesterday morning to a surprise fall of snow, and it kept falling all day. 

I looked like a walking snowman after the school run,

and then after school we went sleding (it was still snowing)

made an enormous snowman and had a great snowball fight

before sledging home (the wind was blowing the snow in our faces at this point).

As it is Wednesday I am showing you my desk as part of WOYWW. Propped up on the back of my desk is my ipad (put carefully out of the way to allow room for crafting) and my trusty mug of tea (almost empty now and in need of a top up). The rest of my desk is covered with the detritus left after a happy crafting session, namely scraps of various patterned papers, some rubber stamps that need cleaning and putting away, some stickers, a craft knife, some glue and pens/pencils.

Here is the double page smash book that I had been working on.  It is entitled 'Song and Dance'.  The left hand page (the song page) is about me joining a choir for the first time in over 10 years, and the dance page is about Alex's first ever street dance exam (we will get the results in a months time).  I am very much enjoying documenting something about our life from each week this year and I think that the book will be fun to look back on.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Special Friends!

Isn't it wonderful when you have friends that you don't have to see often, or even chat to regularly, but when you do you can pick up just where you left off without any difficulties.  Today we went to Coventry to see one of my closest friends and we had a fantastic time chatting away as though no time had passed since the last time we saw each other.  What was so lovely was that the children did the same with all three of them playing together nicely.

It is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge, this week set by Cazzy.  We are sponsored by the lovely Crackerbox palace who supplied us with some real stamps to use, so the challenge is 'a box of chocolates' and you must not use any digi images.  For my card I made the background by sponging tea bag distress ink over a piece of cream card, then stamping the chocolates and 'yummy' stamps from our sponsor over the top (again in tea bag distress ink to keep it pale) and finished the edges off with vintage photo distress ink. The main central panel was made by stamping a vintage lady (by Crafty Individuals), then masked her ands tamped the nutritional facts and yummy stamps from our sponsor in vintage photo distress inks, and then mounted it on two pieces of different shades of brown card added the gem and finished the whole card with the sentiment (again from our sponsor). I am also entering this card into Penny's Challenge 'one for the girls', Simon Says Stamp 'anything goes', Crazy4challenges 'card to make the recipient smile' and CCT 'a different corner' (sentiment in the main corner and gem in the panel corner).  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Made me smile!

I thought that this might make you smile (as part of Annie's Friday smiles)...this is the sight that greeted me on the landing outside my bedroom door when I came out after getting dressed.  Alex had decided to scrapbook in his own unique manner, and the entire landing floor was covered with paper etc.  Where was Alex you may ask...

...in his room drawing a space scene!

This also made me smile...Alex's pet rocks (made last night from tiny stones on which we glued googly eyes)...they had to come with him to school this morning so he could show them to his friends, so he neatly cut some bubble wrap to put in the box to keep them safe (and warm Mummy!). Thats all from me!  Have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x